I Want You Back

Mission: Man Band...Part Deux

2007-08-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

The second episode of Mission: Man Band starts in about half an hour and I felt that now was as good as any to chime in on the show.

So far I love it. It's fantastic to see Chris again and it's interesting to see the dynamics of the people in the house. Also interesting is what everyone has gone through because of the decrease in the popularity of the type of music they made. I ache for them and I really hope this little experiment works out. Mainly for selfish reasons. My whole life I've been a sucker for pop music, I've always felt music should be fun and pleasing to listen to. Nothing in this world does that better than a pop vocal group.

Rock on guys of Mission: Man Band...rock on.

The First Time I Heard *NSYNC

2007-07-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

A bit of a background tale. When I was in the seventh grade, at the young age of 12, my middle school had a volunteer program where good students went up to the zoo every Tuesday for six weeks to guide elementary school kids around. Or so they claimed, when we got up there turns out we were harassing people to fill out surveys. It was the old bait and switch. But that's an issue for another blog entirely.

Anyway, every Tuesday I would be on a bus for a total of two hours a day and so I would bring my walk-man. That's how old I am, I remember walk-mans. At that time, a good friend of mine was really into the Backstreet Boys (though she soon changed her tune). I was listening to Z-100...mainly because I was 12 and didn't know any better. Putting on my headphones my ears were assailed with cheery pop music and I yelled back to my friend that the Backstreet Boys were on. The girl sitting across the aisle from me, who was also listening to Z-100, looked at me, sneered and snapped, "That's not the Backstreet Boys, that's *NSYNC".

I was like...in who?

For a few weeks I claimed that *NSYNC were a bunch of posers and BSB wannabes (if you recall in an earlier post for a while I was trying really hard to like the Backstreet Boys) and they had no talent, blah blah blah.

How very wrong I was.

A mere month or two later "Tearin' Up My Heart" was released, the Disney Concert aired and I fell in love and realized how very, very wrong I was. The reasons for why *NSYNC is better than BSB is better saved for another post. But I chose to tell this story because a) I find it humorous and b) I'm not afraid to admit I'm wrong.

Mission: Manband

2007-07-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Oh Christopher Alan Kirkpatrick, how I love thee. Ok, maybe love is a little intense but I've maintained for years that out of the five guys, Chris would be the one I'd want to hang out with. He is arguably the funniest guy in the group and the one who seems most...normal.

That being said I always felt like, other than the Fairly Odd Parents (btw, "My Shiny Teeth and Me" is still one of my favorite songs), I thought Chris had fallen off the face of the earth. Worried that something may have happened to him I decided to Wiki him and imagine my surprise when I found out that not only is Chris a member of the band Nigels 11 but he is going to be on a new VH1 reality TV show entitled "Mission: Manband".

Normally I am not a fan of reality shows that try to exploit celebrities. Ok, that's kind of a lie. I really dig VH1's celebreality despite myself. If I'm flipping and I happen to catch an episode of "Hogan Knows Best" already in progress I'll watch the whole darn thing, but I digress. "Mission: Manband" is four members of now defunct, successful "boybands" living together, writing songs and forming a group. They're going to put on a show and it even seems as if they're shopping their songs around to labels. Quite frankly this show sounds AMAZING! The members are Jeff from 98 Degrees, Rich from LFO, Bryan from Color Me Badd and, of course, Chris from *NSYNC.

You can check out the commercial at Sureshot's (the band that they form) myspace found here.

The Singing Bee

2007-07-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the premiere of "The Singing Bee" the karaoke-ish game show on NBC hosted by our own Joey Fatone! I have to admit I was a little bit skeptical about the premise of the show...but having watched the episode I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised, not only by the quality of the show but by the hosting abilities of Joey. I was a little worried that it would be awkward or forced but I should have learned by now to never underestimate Joey, the consummate entertainer.

Personally I really dug the show and I admit I squealed like a fangirl when Joey started doing the "Bye, Bye, Bye" dance. Here's hoping the show catches on and gets a good run for him. Well done Joey, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present :-).

Disney Concert

2007-07-09T18:54:00.000-07:00

Considering this week marks the 9 year anniversary of me realizing that *NSYNC was awesome I thought it would be fitting to write an entry about the first time I ever saw the guys.

Picture it...I had just turned 13, it was July 1998 and I had an entire summer of boredom ahead of me. Nothing to do but sit in my room and stare at the walls, or like any good American watch tv. It is important to understand that at this point I had heard "I Want You Back" which at that point I was unimpressed with (but that is a story for another post). Only a few weeks before had I heard "Tearin' Up My Heart" and the Disney Channel had been mercilessly promoting the 'NSYNC 'N Concert special. At this point I kinda sorta liked "Tearin' Up My Heart" (aka, TUMH) but I had been trying really, REALLY hard to force myself to like the Backstreet Boys but since I liked TUMH and nothing else was on I'd watch the concert up until that song. Little did I know it would be the last song they sang.

And thus an obsession was born.

I watched the whole darn concert, was introduced to the five guys and got to see some of their personality outside their songs and immediately wanted to be their friends. That is the interesting thing about *NSYNC...through it all, no matter how big of a group they got to be I always, always wanted to be a friend of theirs because they seemed so real and so down to earth.

A few days after watching the concert I took the money I received for my birthday and bought their first CD and for the rest of the summer I literally watched the special every time it was on, forced my sister to watch it and even video taped it. I still have the tape in storage, I can't bear to throw it away.

And that was how I was introduced to the music of the five guys who would be a constant fixture in my life for the next nine years...

I swear I'm not psychotic

2007-07-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that the best way to start off a blog completely devoted to missing an, as of now, defunct boyband was to assure the audience that I'm not crazy. I don't sit around crying into a pillow adorned with their faces, waiting for the day to come when *NSYNC gets back together. That would be a little nutty. Yes, I still listen to their music. Yes, I do wish they'd get back together. And yes, I have recently re-hung some of their posters. But my entire life doesn't revolve around the five guys of *NSYNC.

That being said...I have decided to start a blog that allows me to vent some of my thoughts of what the guys are up to while they're not together. How their music has inspired me and gotten me through some tough times and to share some fond memories of concerts and cd releases. My reasons for doing this? I know there has to be other fans like me who occasionally think, "Man, my life would be so much better if *NSYNC was still together" and are patiently waiting for that day to arrive. The day when they re-take the music world by storm.

I know there will be people out there who will mock me for starting this blog and think I'm entirely too pathetic for words. That's fine. This blog isn't for or about them. It's for the fans...the ones who still hold out hope.